USPTO to review Smartflash patents after Samsung challenge

Samsung has persuaded the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to review the validity of four patents that have been asserted against it by licensing company Smartflash.

The patents, originally part of a 2013 lawsuit against Smartflash filed against Samsung, cover methods used in computer software to access and store downloaded songs, videos and games.

In court documents filed at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Smartflash claimed that Samsung’s Google Play app and its Media Hub app infringed six of its patents.

In September 2014, Samsung challenged the validity of five of the patents at the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

On Thursday (April 2), the PTAB agreed to review four of the patents.

A Samsung petition to review a fifth Smartflash-owned patent, US number 8,336,772, was rejected.

Samsung did not challenge the validity of the sixth patent in the suit, US number 7,942,317.

If the PTAB invalidates the patents then it could have implications for a similar lawsuit involving Samsung’s rival Apple, which has also been targeted by Smartflash.

On the same day it sued Samsung, Smartflash claimed that Apple’s iTunes software infringed the same six patents at the same district court.

In February 2015, the Texas court ruled that Apple’s iTunes software infringed three of the patents, all of which will form part of the PTAB’s review.

The court awarded Smartflash $532.9 million in damages.

Apple is currently appealing against that decision.

Neither Samsung nor Smartflash responded to a request for comment.